Dual Graphics Cards - Question

KickTheBucket

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Hey Guys,

If one had a motherboard (non-SLI) with two PCI-e ports (1x16x and 1x8x), could one run two nVidia graphics cards in that machine for multi-display purposes?
If so, would the point of an SLI motherboard to be able to run dual nVidia graphics cards for performance purposes?

TIA!
 
SLI is for directing the power of 2 GFX cards to one application. I can't see why it wouldn't work, but why would you need two GFX cards? How many monitors you need?
 
Don't. Really, if you are going to play games, dual GPU'S isn't worth it.
 
Hey Guys,

If one had a motherboard (non-SLI) with two PCI-e ports (1x16x and 1x8x), could one run two nVidia graphics cards in that machine for multi-display purposes?
If so, would the point of an SLI motherboard to be able to run dual nVidia graphics cards for performance purposes?

TIA!

I wouldn't try it without an SLI supported motherboard. If you have issues you'll never know what's causing them.

Don't. Really, if you are going to play games, dual GPU'S isn't worth it.

Why do you say that? SLI and CrossFire are extremely popular. I have a liquid cooled and overclocked HD7990 and it's a beast. It gets amazing performance from all the latest games at 1080p with maxed out graphics. According to the GPU hierarchy on Tom's Hardware, the 7990 is on the same level as the Titan X, 980 Ti and Fury X. And my card cost much, much less than those when I bought it little over a year ago.

The 7990 is basically two 7970s in CrossFire. No reason you couldn't achieve similar performance if you could find two going cheap secondhand.
 
I wouldn't try it without an SLI supported motherboard. If you have issues you'll never know what's causing them.



Why do you say that? SLI and CrossFire are extremely popular. I have a liquid cooled and overclocked HD7990 and it's a beast. It gets amazing performance from all the latest games at 1080p with maxed out graphics. According to the GPU hierarchy on Tom's Hardware, the 7990 is on the same level as the Titan X, 980 Ti and Fury X. And my card cost much, much less than those when I bought it little over a year ago.

The 7990 is basically two 7970s in CrossFire. No reason you couldn't achieve similar performance if you could find two going cheap secondhand.

Brother in law has 2x 980ti in SLI. Only God knows why tbh...
Guess people need something to stroke their E-peen.
 
Brother in law has 2x 980ti in SLI. Only God knows why tbh...
Guess people need something to stroke their E-peen.

Depends on your resolution. For 4K, I wouldn't recommend less than 1080 SLI.
 
If you need more monitors than your card can support you can add another card in. (Non-SLI.)
Just make sure you get an 8x card or make sure that your 8x slot is open-ended. (See picture.)

View attachment 382373
If you want to run SLI: (hopefully getting my second 1080 sometime soon. 144hz gaming ftw. :D )
Usually if boards are marketed 16/8 or 8/8 they can run SLI, this varies based on board and CPU.
SLI on nvidia requires at minimum an electrical 8x slot.
Crossfire on AMD requires at least an electrical 4x slot.

I say "electrical" because the slots themselves can be up to 16x size, but only have 4x pins in them, in that case, that 16x slot is only 4x electrically.

Certain motherboards / CPU can only operate so many slots at a time depending on the CPU.
If you head on over to http://ark.intel.com and punch in your CPU. (Intel obviously. AMD have their own site.)
You'll see these specifications:

PCI Express Revision 3.0
PCI Express Configurations ‡ Up to 1x16, 2x8, 1x8+2x4
Max # of PCI Express Lanes 16

The above is for in intel i7 4790K, your CPU may differ.
It mentions the Revision of PCIe, 3.0 being faster than 2.0 and 1.0/1.1, but a PCIe gen 3 card can run in a gen 1 slot, they are backwards compatible.

Lane configuration is the CPU supported PCIe slot configurations that work, in this case I could use 1x16 electrical, 2 x8 electrical, so on.

Max PCIe lanes = Maximum lanes in total to share across slot configurations. (16=16, 8+8=16, 8+4+4=16)

If you post the motherboard model number you can go on the manufacturer website and see what PCIe lane configurations are supported, along with whatever CPU you're using, as long as it means 2x slots are in 8x electrically you're good for SLI.
 
I wouldn't try it without an SLI supported motherboard. If you have issues you'll never know what's causing them.



Why do you say that? SLI and CrossFire are extremely popular. I have a liquid cooled and overclocked HD7990 and it's a beast. It gets amazing performance from all the latest games at 1080p with maxed out graphics. According to the GPU hierarchy on Tom's Hardware, the 7990 is on the same level as the Titan X, 980 Ti and Fury X. And my card cost much, much less than those when I bought it little over a year ago.

The 7990 is basically two 7970s in CrossFire. No reason you couldn't achieve similar performance if you could find two going cheap secondhand.
While SLI and crossfire are popular, there are still games out there that doesn't take full advantage of Crossfire setups. I have two R9 series GPU'S, and I often get better frames in some games when I disable Crossfire.
 
Down the rabbit hole we go! MDA and LDA exp. and imp...:

[video=youtube;A91BPapLK38]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A91BPapLK38[/video]
 
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